PITTSBURGH — Jeff Carter scored, Maxime Lagace stopped 29 shots for his first career shutout and Pittsburgh beat the Buffalo Sabres 1-0 on Saturday, then won the East Division title hours later when Washington needed overtime to beat Philadelphia.
Lagace made his first start in more than two years with Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith sidelined for the for the regular-season finale.
Carter scored his 17th goal as the Penguins finished the regular season with 13 wins and points in 14 of their last 16 games. Pittsburgh also finished 22-4-2 at home, one of the best marks in the league.
Michael Houser, who grew up in northern Pittsburgh suburbs, made 22 saves for Buffalo.
CAPITALS 2, FLYERS 1, OT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lars Eller tied it with 39.8 seconds left in regulation, Conor Sheary scored in overtime and short-handed Washington beat Philadelphia to guarantee it’ll open the playoffs at home.
Failing to win in regulation gave the East Division title to rival Pittsburgh. The Capitals locked up the No. 2 seed in the East and home-ice advantage in the first round.
Craig Anderson made 26 saves, allowing only Scott Laughton’s goal.
MAPLE LEAFS 3, CANADIENS 2
TORONTO (AP) — Mitch Marner scored his 20th goal of the season and Toronto beat Montreal to wrap up the North Division title.
William Nylander and Pierre Engvall also scored, and Jack Campbell made 21 saves. Toronto was 7-2-1 against the Canadiens in the season series as the Original Six rivals look poised to meet in the playoffs for the first time since 1979.
Toronto won its first division crown since 2000.
Nick Suzuki and Brett Kulak scored for Montreal, and Jake Allen stopped 23 shots.
Toronto beat Montreal 5-2 on Thursday night to open the two-game set.
RANGERS 5, BRUINS 4
BOSTON (AP) — Mika Zibanejad scored two of New York’s four third-period goals and the Rangers ended their season with a victory over Boston to halt a five-game losing streak.
Alexis Lafrenière and Vitali Kravtsov also scored in a wild third when the Rangers turned a 2-1 deficit to a 4-2 edge. K’Andre Miller added a goal for the Rangers, and Keith Kinkaid made 28 saves before leaving with an injury midway into the third. Igor Shesterkin finished up in net with seven saves.
David Pastrnak scored his 200th career goal, Brad Marchand had his team-leading 28th, and Patrice Bergeron and Nick Ritchie also scored for the Bruins.
ISLANDERS 5, DEVILS 1
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) — Brock Nelson scored twice in the second period and New York beat New Jersey in the final regular-season game at Nassau Coliseum.
Mathew Barzal had a goal and an assist, and Jordan Eberle and Kyle Palmieri also scored for the Islanders. Ilya Sorokin stopped 23 shots to help New York snap a three-game losing streak and get its sixth regulation win in the last 23 games.
Andreas Johnsson scored for New Jersey.
GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4, BLUES 1
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Reilly Smith had his first career hat trick, Marc-Andre Fleury made 20 saves and Vegas beat St. Louis to tie Carolina for the NHL points lead.
Chandler Stephenson also scored for the Golden Knights. Vegas extended its home winning streak to a season-high seven games. The Golden Knights will meet Colorado on Monday night in a matchup of the West Division’s top two teams, with the division title still up for grabs.
Colton Parayko scored for St. Louis.
SENATORS 4, JETS 2
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Rookie Tim Stutzle had his first NHL hat trick to help Ottawa beat Winnipeg for its third consecutive victory.
Connor Brown scored and added two assists, Shane Pinto also had two assists, and Filip Gustavsson made 27 saves. The Senators improved to 8-1-1 in their past 10 games.
Mason Appleton and Mark Scheifele scored for Winnipeg, and Connor Hellebuyck stopped 19 shots. The Jets have lost six in a row on home ice.
PANTHERS 5, LIGHTNING 1
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored three goals and Florida beat Tampa Bay, keeping alive its hopes of home-ice advantage in the upcoming first-round playoff series between the intrastate rivals.
The Panthers moved two points ahead of the Lightning and into second place in the Central Division. Florida can clinch home-ice advantage if it finishes ahead of Tampa Bay in the standings after the teams meet again Monday night to end their regular seasons.
Jonathan Huberdeau and Sam Bennett each had a goal and an assist for Florida.
Luke Schenn scored for Tampa Bay.
PREDATORS 3, HURRICANES 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Luke Kunin scored twice, Juuse Saros made 21 saves and Nashville beat the Carolina to secure the Central Division’s fourth and final playoff berth.
With Carolina already having locked up the top spot in the Central, the Hurricanes and Predators will meet in the opening round of the playoffs.
Erik Haula also scored and Mikael Granlund had two assists for Nashville.
Morgan Geekie scored and Alex Nedeljkovic made 27 saves for Carolina.
WILD 4, DUCKS 3, OT
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Victor Rask scored 2:46 into overtime and Minnesota beat Anaheim.
Jared Spurgeon, Ryan Hartman and Nick Bonino also scored and the Wild finished 4-1-2 on a season-high seven-game homestand. Kirill Kaprizov added two assists and Cam Talbot stopped 19 shots.
Rask took a pass from Matt Dumba and hammered a shot past Ryan Miller from the left circle. Miller concluded his stellar 18-season career by making 21 saves for Anaheim, which finished 17-30-9 and missed the playoffs for the third straight season.
Rickard Rakell, Trevor Zegras and Max Comtois scored for Anaheim.
AVALANCHE 3, KINGS 2
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Devon Toews scored twice for his first multigoal game and Colorado beat Los Angeles.
Cale Makar had a goal and an assist for the second straight game, Jonas Johansson made 16 saves and the Avalanche won for the fourth time in five games.
Rasmus Kupari scored his first career goal, Sean Walker had a goal and an assist, and the Kings lost both games of a back-to-back to the Avalanche. Cal Petersen made 27 saves.
BLUE JACKETS 5, RED WINGS 4, OT
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Max Domi scored 4:39 into overtime to lift Columbus past Detroit in the season finale for both teams.
Eric Robinson, Cam Atkinson, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Jack Roslovic also scored and Matiss Kivlenieks made 33 saves for the Blue Jackets. They finished last in the Central Division, missing a chance to pass Detroit when the game went to overtime.
Jakub Vrana, Dennis DeKeyser, Sam Gagner and Valtteri Filppula scored for Detroit.
The Associated Press